Netizens debate whether Korea is a good country to live in

[twenties stories] THERE ARE NO BETTER COUNTRIES TO LIVE IN THAN KOREA

I really like to travel overseas and each time, I always have this same feeling.
I feel like there's no other country to live in that's better than Korea...
First of all I feel like the environment is very secure, aside from Korea, Japan, Hongkong Taiwan, I feel like with their culture, girls can'st hang out late at night alone and without being scared of becoming the target of a crime; it's really deserted
Our Wifi is also the #1 in the world, it's free and you can use all you want, that's not something common overseas ㅋ ㅋ
And there are so many pickpockets and those over-the-top scamming tourist shops in their touristy places. I went to Europe and their pickpockets are seriously severe...
There were those big black men who suddenly surrounded me and stole my things once, I was so scared that I was tremblingㅠ Because of that I'm always worried about getting robbed ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
Above all, you can't own a gun so there are no terrorist attacks, which is super nice to have. Terrorist attacks overseas are seriously so frequent... Because they allow gun possession...

Anyways, they don't feel as peaceful as Koreaㅋ
And our country have a great sense of citizenship ㅎ
People pick up the trash fast on the floor, and there are cigarette bins every street corners.
The airport system is also very good. The food and the public places are so clean.
If you go to Europe or America, or any advanced countries, you'd never see a place as clean as here ㅠ
Netizen comments:

[+216, -16] Our peaceful country is starting to become like Europe too. Those South East gangsters are starting to rise in Daegu, and there are those black gangs hanging around Itaewon too. And those Chinese triads too. Korea is seriously not that safe. The natives are very book-smart, and they know about the importance of manners, it's because they are conscious of other people that crime rates are so low here. But the government won't be able to maintain this peace.... The inflow of immigrants to Korea has surpassed Japan now. Japan has 3x our population and 3x our territory and they have better economy. But they're very self-disciplined... And as soon as you something bad in that country you receive something in return. ex-convicts drug users, criminals.... If you go to Itaewon now, you can already see those black people intimidating Koreans..... You'd think they would stay within Itaewon? They're expanding their territories. Our country is slowing becoming hell Joseon. Foreigners = customers, I hope we'd get rid of that mentality.

[+137, -5] It's a good country as long as you're rich....

[+94, -10] There are no better country to live in aside Korea only if you have money. ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ

[+44, -0] But I like how overseas, the bars close their doors earlier.... So the foreigners would go back home and spend time with their family, for our country, we just spend our time outside and neglect our family

[+43, -0] If you visit a country for vacation, there's no country that's bad, just try living there for a few years and you'll know

[+34, -24] The public safety is alright but oh how ignorant we are about sexual abuse of all kinds
sources: pannchoa, pann

what do you think, OMONA? is korea a good country to live in? do you live in korea or do you want to live there one day?

I agree. Japanese more or less as polite and nice to tourists (or more). And the streets are also clean and they are super discipline and organized. But the only thing Japan didnt have is the super fast free wifi (where you can download 4GB in 5mins OTL).

But I pick Japan over Korea any day for vacation though since Japan has soo many awesome tourists spots and amazing castles and gardens that we can visit.

Not all of the public wi-fi is free. If you're traveling on the subways you'll have a hard time getting access. You have to have a phone plan with one of the major providers to get access to a lot of the public wi-fi.There aren't trash cans/cigarette bins everywhere. You have to have a bloodhound to hunt one down half the time.If you go to any public area (popular or not) you should always watch your step or you might step in puke.

And wow. That second comment. Just one fine example of the close-minded view about foreigners.

Plus, Ahjummas (in particular) are SO disrespectful with everybody. Like they feel they have the right to do whatever they please without caring about people surrounding them.

When I was in Seoul, I saw how an ahjumma basically trew a girl against the subway's door because she aparently couldn't wait until everybody came out. Then she proceeded to punch aside two guys that were calmly talking on one side, and almost trew to the floor a boy that was with his phone, just to reach an empty seat nobody was even paying attention to. When she reached it, she started shouting something in korean to an ahjussi (her husband I guess) who was entering slowly to the subway, and then almost trew him to the seat.

Another old woman tried to intimidate and push aside my friend in a crowded place, and my friend stared at her with such a killing gaze that she had to backtrack (we have to deal with people worse than her as a daily basis in our country, so we are not intimidated that easly). After one or two days I had to start to use my elbows again to protect myself from people because everybody punched everybody to pass. After 15 days in Japan, I felt like I was back in my home country, and, tbh, to deal with such people, I better stay in my country with my family. People in Busan and Jeju were way nicier, tho. I just hated Seoul, lol.

Hongdae at least wasn't that clean either, tbh, but it was still more clean than the trash can that is the city where I live, so, lol.

...yikes. these comments sound so similar to the jargon used by far-right ppl here in sweden/europe, but south korea hasn't experienced a refugee crisis and is like 99% homogenous lol. the first comment esp sounds exactly like the type of vague fear-mongering doom speech they use

lmao omona is taking this so seriously. all these answers can be seen in about any country, you'll always have super patriotic people and a handful of comments is practically nothing to judge from. imagine if we had to judge a population from the comments from facebook

something I've always wondered about korea and japan is how much of the internet is actually available to them in their own language? like not everything can be translated and I wonder how much news agencies decide to just not report.

that terrorist comment is especially concerning if they thing it's just gun laws that prevent terrorist attacks

I would really like to know where they've travelled to because their image of the entire world seems to be based on a strange racist caricature of America? The only thing to give this person props for is that they're probably thinking of mass shootings in the States and yes, those really SHOULD be considered terrorist attacks

Not saying there is not a whole lot of room for improvement for all of us but lol at "it's clean because there are cigarette bins on every corner". If they didn't have such a crazy high percentage of smokers ruining their lungs and still stinking up establishments then they wouldn't NEED cigarette bins on every corner.

Okay, I have opinions because I lived in Korea for a year. I am white passing but with dark hair and eyes so I didn't fit the standard of the ideal white person. I got pretty much left alone by Koreans, unlike other foreigners who were either vilified or glorified, depending on their ethnicity.

Did I feel safe walking alone in the dark? Maybe 75% of the time. I feel safer in Japan.

Is their WiFi great? Eh. It's about as wide spread as the WiFi in the UK. Better than Japanese free WiFi.

There are fewer thieves than in the UK, sure. Is it cleaner...... in some public places yes, but I think this person has forgotten that the sewage system in Korea is fucking awful and you can smell it year round. Seoul stinks to the high heavens in some areas.

But this person has conveniently forgotten to mention how fucking stressful living in Korea is. You aren't doing good in school? You're trash. You aren't doing good at work? You're trash. You're single? You're trash. You aren't wearing the latest trends? You're trash. You're not skinny enough? You're trash. Korea destroyed my (granted already precarious) mental health and I would never live there again for that reason. Visit? Sure. But you gotta pay me serious dollar to get my ass back in that country on anything other than a tourist visa.

the last part of your comment is 700% the reason why I left Korea. I did my undergrad there and lived there for 7 years, speak fluent korean, etc. but living there DESTROYED my mental health and I'm worried I'm never going to get it back tbh.I'd love to visit again because I love so many things about the country and it's not all bad by any means, but lord do you need thick skin.

plus all the vomit and phlegm everywhere was so disgusting lmao and +1 to the constant smell of feces in sinchon in the summer.

Lol I’ve never lived in Korea but I get judged and heckled enough by Koreans in my own country who are my actual friends to know that nonsense about manners is just that, nonsense.

Also, I’ve never felt more safe in my life than wandering around a deep southern rural fishing town in Taiwan at night, looking for shaved ice and milk tea, but whatever. People will always think their crap smells like flowers.

eh. many people think the same about their own country but i guess some are allowed to do that and some need to be corrected lol. i haven't been to korea myself but the cons that westerners bring about it always crack me up b/c i recognize a lot of them in my own culture so it's funny to hear that they're considered cons to someone.

Lmao America is pretty shitty rn, but Korea has a shit ton of problems that have existed forever. Not LGBTQ friendly, hella racist, extremely competitive schooling to the point of driving students to suicide, extremely sexist, have to be good looking to get into colleges/get good jobs, extremely stressful and hierarchal work cultures, hmmm what else....

My friend is dating a Korean guy. She asked his type and he said “skinny girls” 🙄 she showed him a picture of one of her friends and he said he didn’t like her (even tho he’s never met her) because she’s “kinda big” like HMMM ok.

I love kpop but never in a million years would I want to be born Korean.